The Gut Fails
by teal'c08
Summary: What happens if Mikel comes back? What if Gibbs was distracted by Hollis and Abby gets hurt? How will Tony deal with the fact that his mentor abandoned the scientist for another woman? And how will Gibbs make amends for his grave mistake? Hollis-bashing
1. Distracted

****Saturday, June 2nd 11:55 P.M****

"Mikel! Don't-"The last words were cut off as a knife was plunged into the stomach of Abigail Sciuto. The force of the blow caused the woman to fall back and land in an unnatural position as her head hit the cold, wet concrete floor of the alley. Deafening silence filled the darkly-lit space until footsteps could be heard running down the darkly lit pathway between two tall, brick buildings in the busy city of Washington D.C.

****Friday, June 1st 8:02 A.M****

"Gibbs!" Abby yelled as she ran out of the back elevators towards the afore mentioned man in the squad room. The special agent paused locking up his Sig and badge in his top desk draw.

"What do you need, Abs." The silver-haired fox asked. When he finally looked up, he noticed the look of confusion mixed with a touch of fear on her face. He walked around to the side of his desk so he could look straight at her.

"Remember when you found out about Mikel and made me promise to never keep stuff like that from you again?" She asked with a hint of nervousness coloring her tone.

Gibbs took a step closer to her, hoping to make her feel more safe and comfortable. "Yeah?" he asked with worry obvious in his voice.

"Ok, so I don't know if this actually means anything, but little things keep happening and it's starting to make me feel a little hinky."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. My door is open when I swore I locked it, or my bag is not where I thought I put it. Some of my things keep disappearing…"

Gibbs smiled, his nervousness starting to dissipate and be replaced with amusement.

"Abby, that stuff is all normal. Maybe your just more spacey lately than you thought you realized-"

"Gibbs, no! I know something else is going on here. I keep hearing things and I always have this feeling-like I'm being followed or something." She protested.

"Look, Abs," he said gently, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Everything will be fine." Without either one of them noticing, the main elevator doors opened and Hollis Mann stepped out and walked towards Gibbs.

"Gibbs-"

"You ready to go?" Mann said, knowingly cutting Abby off without sparing her a sideways glance.

"Yeah, almost." Gibbs replied, turning to look at her.

Abby starred at him questioningly. It was Friday morning and she'd never seen the boss take off early if it wasn't an emergency.

"I promised Holly that I would take her on a strictly 'no-work' week-end." He said with a slight smirk.

"Gibbs, I'm really getting creeped out here." Abby said almost desperately. Gibbs opened his mouth to respond to her, but Hollis stepped in before he could.

"Jethro, why don't you finish putting your stuff away so we can get out of her sooner?" She said.

Mann took a couple of steps over to Abby and somehow managed to appear to be looking down at her even though she was several inches shorter than the younger woman. "Don't you think that Jethro deserves some free time after catching things that the rest of you seem to miss? Or fixing your mistakes?" She whispered loud enough for only Abby to hear.

Abby took a step back, shocked and slightly wounded by Mann's statement.

"Uh, yeah, I guess. I just thought-" She said hesitantly, this time loud enough for Gibbs to hear.

"Abby, I'm sure this is nothing. It can wait a week-end and we'll deal with this when I get back, ok?" he asked, placing his hands on her shoulders.

Abby nodded and Gibbs leaned forward to place a kiss on her cheek before turning back to Hollis and walking out with her with Abby starring almost transfixed.

"Everything okay, Abby?" The woman shook herself out of her revere and turned around to find Anthony DiNozzo watching her carefully.

"Yeah, uh yeah I guess. I've had this feeling like something hinky is going on, but Gibbs told me not to worry about it."

"Well you know that Gibbs' gut is never wrong."

"Yeah, but maybe it can get distracted." She whispered. Tony shrugged and went to go sit at his desk while Abby made her way back down to her lab, her eagle necklace glinting in the harsh light from the overheads.

****Saturday, June 2nd 11:45 P.M.****

"What do ya say we get out of here?" Dinozzo asked with a smirk on his face. Jeanne Benoit leaned over the table and nodded, the smirk curving her lips matching her own. Tony quickly pulled out his wallet and threw a hand full of bills on the table before pulling her out of her chair and out of the restaurant.

The couple walked down the street, their laughter melding in the air around them. The mood shifted, however, when Tony saw a man run out of an alleyway a few feet away from them. Something about him seemed vaguely familiar but he couldn't put his finger on it. While he continued trying to figure out the mystery, he felt something hard dig into the bottom of his shoe. He removed his arm from around Jeanne's waist and bent to get a better look at what had caused his discomfort- an eagle necklace. Tony's eyes widened as the dots began to connect in his head.

"Jeanne, stay here until I tell you otherwise." He yelled, already beginning to run to mouth of the alley.

"Tony? What's going on?" The woman asked worriedly.

"Just stay there!" The agent responded, barely looking back at her before disappearing into the dark space between two buildings.

What he saw nearly made him collapse, but he somehow managed to stay standing long enough to make his way over to the prone form on the ground at the end of the passageway.

"Abs!" He cried, falling to his knees next to her head. "Jeanne! I need you here. Now! And call an ambulance!" He called out, hoping that his voice would carry to his girlfriend on the street. The forensic scientist on the ground in front of him slowly opened her eyes, smiling slightly when she saw her friend kneeling beside her.

"Tony…" She whispered weakly.

"Shh…" He whispered, gently running his hand over her hair. "Jeanne!" He shouted again without taking his eyes off of Abby.

"S'Hurts" she said slowly, her energy quickly fading as the effluence from her stomach wound continued.

"I know, sweetheart, I know." He responded, finally seeing his girlfriend running towards him. "But everything's going to be fine, yeah? I promise." Abby nodded slowly before her eyes began to drift closed. "Abbs? Abbs!" Tony shouted, trying to bring the woman back to consciousness. "Come on! Come back to me!"

"What's going on, Tony?" Jeanne asked, assuming the same position as Tony on the other side of Abby.

"Help her" was all he said, looking up at her with tears glistening in his eyes.

"Who is she?" Jeanne asked, unable to keep a small amount of jealousy from creeping its way into her voice, despite the dire circumstances.

"My sister. Please help her."

"You don't have a sister."

"Not by blood! She's not a blood relative, but she's my sister in every other sense of the word." Tony responded. "Look, we're running out of time. I'll explain everything later, I promise. Just please do something. She was talking before, but she's lost consciousness not and I don't want it to get worse."

Snapping into doctor mode, Jeanne immediately started assessing the situation. The knife was still embedded in Abby's stomach. Normally, Jeanne would say leave it in until they got to the hospital and could see what was going on inside, but she could see that the knife was dirty and rusting and had to be removed before the possibility of infection complicated things more.

"Take off your shirt." She said in a no-nonsense voice.

"I don't think now is the time-"

"Tony! I need something to press against her wound to stop the flow of blood when I pull the knife out."

"Oh" Tony had the decency to look mildly embarrassed as he removed first his blazer and then his button down shirt, leaving himself in his white undershirt.

"Ok, I'm going to slowly pull the blade out. As soon as it's out completely, you need to press the shirt on the wound." When Tony nodded in agreement, Jeanne carefully placed her hand on the handle of the knife. She carefully extracted the blade, pulling at just the right speed so as to not inflict more damage. As soon as he saw the tip of the knife, Tony pressed his balled up shirt against the wound on Abby's stomach, applying light but firm pressure.

"I already called an ambulance. It should be here soon." Jeanne said as she watched the man with whom she is in love care for this other woman. She knew he said she was like his sister, but it didn't stop a modicum of jealously from entering her mind.

Almost as soon as she said the words, sirens could be heard coming up the street. Within minutes, two men carrying a stretcher between them walked towards them. They carefully took over for Tony and shifted Abby's body to the stretcher. Before they knew it, Abby was being loaded into the back of the ambulance. Tony climbed in with her, ignoring any calls that he couldn't do so and Jeanne followed him, using her position as a doctor to justify her place in the back.

The driver started the car pulled out onto the street, preparing to take a left at the next intersection. "Whoa, wait. What are you doing? Bethesda's in the other direction." Tony asked, not realizing that they wouldn't know that Abby is a federal worker, especially considering the way she was dressed.

"We're taking her to George Washington."

"No, she's a forensic scientist for NCIS. Take her to Bethesda." The paramedic gave him a strange look, as did Jeanne, but Tony ignored the later. Instead, he began to go through her purse, looking for her ID. "Come on Abs, you always have your ID on you." he murmured to himself. Realizing that he wouldn't be able to find the ID in all the stuff she kept in her bag, Tony reached into his pocket and pulled out his own.  
"I'm a federal agent and I can vouch for her." He said, refusing to meet Jeanne's shocked and confused gaze. For now, he just had to concentrate on Abby. The rest he would deal with later. Thankfully, the man seemed to believe him because Tony felt the ambulance change its path and head toward the naval hospital.


	2. On your own

A/N: Thank you for the great reviews and to those of you who added this to their story alerts list. I'll try to update as much as I can, hopefully every week-end. The story will shift back and forth between in the timeline as more of the plot is reveled. It won't be too long, but hopefully I'll get some nice chapters out of this plot that had been dancing around my head for so long.

P.S. I'm almost certain that Jeanne _**doesn't**_ work at Bethesda, but it works better if she does, so yay creative license!!

P. realized in while reading the other chapter that I misspelled Tony's last name. How could I have forgotten "Big 'D', little 'I', big 'N', little 'ozzo'"

****Friday June 1st 12:14***

Abby was currently held up in her lab trying to finish a DNA analysis for one of the other NCIS teams when her cell phone went off. She picked it up without checking the caller ID.

"Abby Sciuto" she said in an upbeat voice.

"Hello Abby" The smile instantly dropped from her face and a cold shiver ran up her spine.

"What do you want Mikel?" She asked, trying desperately to keep her voice free of the fear that was currently paralyzing her body.

"I just wanted to see how you're doing. You know, the last time we saw each other, it didn't end so well."

"Well, maybe it would have gone better if you hadn't stalked me and then planned to fake my own suicide." She said, finally managing to replace her fear with strict animosity. You would think that the venom that dripped from her words would be enough to deter him, but Mikel was something special.

"Come now, Abby, I told you I only did all those things to protect you. You were in danger-"

"From YOU!" Abby shouted into the phone

"No Abby, you know as well as I do that someone else was arrested for the attempts on your life, not me." He said in a voice that made it sound as if her were talking to a small child.

"Mikel, I don't really care, anymore. It's over and it has been form a while. Why can't you just let it go?" She asked, growing weary from the war of emotions raging within herself. She didn't know whether to be petrified or furious and the emotional turmoil was draining after only a few minutes of talking to her one-time boyfriend.

"You know I can't do that, Abby. I'm just trying to do what's best for you. You'll be happier once we're back together, you'll see."

"Mikel, you're delusional. Please, just let go already. This has gone on way too long."

"I can't just let you go, Abby. You'll change your mind one day, you'll see." He said hanging up the phone before she could respond.

Another shiver ran up Abby's spin and she immediately pressed the speed dial on her phone to call Gibbs.

The phone rang twice before it was picked up. Unfortunately, it wasn't by Gibbs.

"Hello?" A distinctly female voice said.

"Oh, uh, hi Colonel Mann, I –um- I need to speak to Gibbs." Abby said, the shock at someone else picking up the bosses phone causing her to stutter.

"Now, Abigail, I thought we talked about this. Gibbs is taking a break from saving all of you all the time. You'll just have to deal with your _little crisis_ all by yourself." Hollis responded in a condescending tone. **"I'll tell him that you called, Abigail, but I doubt he'll have time to respond.** Good-bye"

All Abby heard after that was the dial tone. She could only stare at the cell phone in her hand and resolve herself to the fact that her silver-haired fox wasn't coming to her aid this time.

"Who was that, Hollis?" Gibbs asked while coming out of the bathroom just as Hollis said good-bye into the receiver.

Hollis jumped at his sudden appearance. "Oh, it was just a wrong number." Seeing his skepticism, she quickly moved to distract him. "Now why don't we start enjoying this no-work week-end you promised me?" She said with a sultry smile. As Gibbs walked over to her, completely enthralled, Hollis mentally reminded herself to delete Abby's number from the call history, not that she really thought Gibbs knew how to access that.

****Friday, June 1st 6:05 P.M****

"Hey Abbs" DiNozzo said jovially as he entered the lab later that night. The Goth in question turned to the agent and forced a smile on her face.

"Hey Tony! What are you doing down here?" She asked. The smile on Tony's face fell slightly at her strained voice.

"Well, I was going to tell you that I'm heading out and to have a good week-end…"

"Oh, you too" Abby cut in before he could finish his statement

Tony shook his head and resumed speaking, trying to make eye-contact with the shorter scientist. "But now, I want you to tell me what's wrong." He said sternly.

Abby continuously tried to evade his gaze. "Nothing's wrong, DiNozzo, I'll see you Monday." She said while turning back to her computer.

"Yeah, Abby… That is soo-oh not going to work." When she didn't turn around, he walked over to her and gently turned her to face him. "Come on, Abbs, talk to me." He whispered gently, placing his hands on the sides of her face to force her to meet his eyes.

Abby offered him a tentative smile and reached up to grab his wrists. "It's nothing. I'm fine. I just got a little freaked out. But Gibbs said that its nothing and his gut is never wrong so-"

"Do you want me to look into something, Abbs? 'Cuz I will you know, even if the gut said it was nothing." He asked, cutting her off.

"No, Tony, I'm fine. I promise." Still doubtful, Tony finally accepted her answer and stepped back. "All right. But you call me if _anything _happens." Abby nodded and moved to turn away, but was stopped by his hand on her arm. "Abby, I mean it. _Anything_ happens, you call me, 'kay?"

Smiling fully this time, Abby wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug. "Thank you, Tony." She whispered, pulling back.

"Hey, what are big brothers for?" He asked with a grin as he moved back to grab the jacket he had dropped when he first entered the lab. "I'll see you on Monday if I don't hear from you sooner. See ya Abbs."

"Bye, Tony." Once she was sure that she was alone, she let the smile drop off of her face as she forcedly held back tears. That was the first time she had knowingly lied to Tony. She wasn't fine and she also knew that she wouldn't call him. She was going to meet with Mikel and end this herself before anyone else got hurt.

****Sunday, June 3rd 12:45 AM****

Tony sat in the waiting room, hunched over in one of the most uncomfortable chairs he had ever been in. His elbows rested on his knees while his hand wrapped around his hung head and pulled at the hair on the back of his head. Guilt, fear, and worry mixed together in his gut, creating the worst feeling of nausea he had ever experienced.

"_What the hell is taking so long?" _He thought angrily. Looking up, he finally saw his girlfriend, potentially _ex_-girlfriend, walk out of the closed off operating room. He immediately jumped up and almost ran over to her.

"What's going on?" He asked frantically. "Is she okay?"

Jeanne carefully schooled her features into a business-like façade, telling herself to act like a doctor taking to the family of a patient and not to a man who had been lying to her for months.

"Somehow, the knife managed to miss all vital organs. There was some minor internal bleeding, but that was easily fixed and they're giving her anti-biotics to fight any possible infection. She'll be out of it for a while, so they're moving her to a room on the 7th floor."

"But she'll be okay, right? I mean if something was seriously wrong they would put her in the ICU, right?" He asked, the fear dissipating a little, though the guilt and worry remained.

Despite still feeling hurt and angry at being lied to, Jeanne couldn't keep a smile from curving the edges of her lips at the man's reaction.

"Yes, she's going to be fine, Tony. The head injury was a little worrisome, but it appears to just be a mild concussion. She's going to have stay here for a day for observation to make sure that no other problems surface, but other than some pain in her stomach and having to change the bandages over her stitches, she should be good as new in a couple of days."

Tony let out a huge sigh of relief as he stopped feeling like he was at the verge of throwing up for the first time since he found Abby. "Jeanne, I just want to say that I'm sorry for lying to you and I know we have to have a long conversation about this, but-"

"She's in room 723." She cut him off. Jeanne, while hurt, knew that no conversation was going to accomplish anything until Tony had seen for himself that the woman was okay. Tony just nodded and ran to the elevator, trying to get to the room as quickly as he possibly could.

He slowed down as he neared the room and entered as quietly as he could. Abby lay sleeping on the bed, her hair free of her usually pigtails and her face washed of her usually make-up. She looked younger and more fragile than Tony had ever seen her and, frankly, it scared the shit out of him.

He slowly walked up to the side of the bed and took a sit in the chair set up there while engulfing her small hand with both of his. He gently placed a kiss on the back of her hand before setting it down on the bed. Her eyes fluttered open and she seemed to struggle with focusing them as she gazed at him.

"Tony?" She asked slowly, almost tentatively.

"I'm here, Abbs" He replied in an uncharacteristically quiet voice, gently brushing her bangs back with his hand. He didn't realize that tears had leaked out of his eyes until Abby brought them up.

"You're crying" She said weakly. Tony smiled a bit and bit back a laugh at her statement.

"I thought I lost you-"He said brokenly, trying to not think about what would have happened had he not been there.

"I'm fine DiNozzo." She said emphatically, trying to re-assure him.

"You said that before and we saw how that turned out, didn't we" He said with more bite than he intend.

"I'm sorry." She looked almost chastised.

Tony smiled weakly to placate her. "Why didn't you come to be Abbs?" He asked "You promised to come to me if anything happened." He said, fighting to keep the hurt out of his voice.

Abby broke eye contact and began to pull at the threads of her blanket. "I-I'm sorry! I just didn't want to worry you. I tried to tell Gibbs before he left and he said it was probably nothing so I didn't want to bother anyone else with it. Then I tried to call him and Hollis picked up and told me that I should start trying to solve my crises by myself and I thought I was bothering people too much with my problems and-"She couldn't continue, for by that time, she had broken down into body-racking sobs.

Tony quickly stood up and tried to calm her. "Shh, Abbs, calm down. It's okay. You could never bother me with anything, no matter what anyone tells you, okay?" He asked. Abby nodded slowly placing her head on his shoulder as she felt herself suddenly becoming very tired. Tony noticed this and gently laid her back down on the bed. "Why don't you try to get some rest, Abby? I'll be here when you wake up." He gently stroked her head until he was sure she had drifted off to sleep. He then ducked out of the room and pulled out his cell phone, dialing an all-too familiar number.

"Gibbs" a gruff voice said when the phone was picked up.

"Nice to know you still remember how to pick up your own phone, Boss." Tony said scathingly. Before Gibbs could say anything, Tony continued. "Abby's in the hospital. Mikel, you know the guy you told her not to worry about on Friday? Yeah, he stabbed her in the stomach in a dark alley and left her there to die. If you can pry yourself away from Hollis long enough to care about the girl you _usually_ treat as a _daughter_, she'll be in Bethesda until the day after tomorrow. Hopefully, you can get your priorities straight by then." He then hung up the phone before his boss could respond and re-entered Abby's room to re-claim his spot by her bed, slowly drifting off into a fitful sleep.


	3. Call off your guard dog

A/N: I'm so sorry that I've been M.I.A lately. Finals took more out of me that I thought they would. I'm not really happy with this chapter, but I really wanted to get something to you, so take it easy on me. This chapter will tie the past together with the present. From now on, the story will progress in a normal, linear timeline. Everyone seems really OOC here, but I just needed to get the emotional chapter out of the way, and they will back to b true selves before you know it.

P.S. I changed the last chapter a bit. Hollis told Abby that she would tell Gibbs that Abby called. It just works out better if Abby thinks that Gibbs knew that she called and didn't call her back.

****Sunday, June 3rd 1:00 A.M.****

Gibbs closed his cell phone and stared at it after his senior field agent hung up on him. _Abby was stabbed? Picking up my own phone? My priorities …_ Scenes started to flash through Gibbs' mind as all the dots seemed to finally connect.

_Abby running up to him, telling him that something was wrong, but backing down after Hollis spoke to her_

_Look of betrayal and hurt thinly veiled behind a façade of confusion as he walked away from her with Mann. _

_Coming out of the bathroom to find Hollis with his phone; doubting her response, but letting her distract him anyway._

Everything suddenly became clear for the NCIS agent and his heart constricted at the realization that he was the reason that Abby was lying in a hospital bed in Bethesda. He had vowed to protect her, made her promise to come to him with any problem, and the moment she did, he threw her aside for the woman with whom he was sleeping. _How could I be so G-d damn stupid?_

Despite the intense feeling of guilt that still plagued him, Gibbs focused his energy on a much more useful emotion: Intense, unadulterated HATE. All directed at the woman who had, unfortunately for her, just entered the room with a large smile on her face.

"So…I was thinking…" She said a seductive smile curling her lips as she walked over to Gibbs, who was sitting on the bed. "We could stay in today. Maybe-Gibbs?" Hollis asked hesitantly once she saw the fire in the man's eyes.

"You have anything to tell me, Hollis?" Gibbs said in an eerily calm voice.

Fear shot through her, but she maintained her calm exterior. "What do you mean Gibbs?" She asked, walking up behind him to sensuously massage his shoulders in an attempt to distract the gruff man. Her hopes were dashed when he harshly pushed her hands off of him and stood up to face her.

"I'm not playing with you, Hollis." He said, barely controlling the venom in his voice. "Abby's hurt, yet I didn't know she was in danger and something tells me _**YOU**_ had something to do with that." By the end of his statement, Gibbs could no longer keep himself from yelling at the woman with whom he _used_ to be in a relationship.

"Don't blame this on me Gibbs. Yeah I may have wanted to have your sole attention for once, and maybe I planted a couple of insecurities in her pretty little head…but _**you**_ came all own _**your own**_." She said, her own voice rising to match his in volume.

Gibbs opened his mouth to respond, but realized he had no retort for her. She was right; he had followed her on his own accord. Abby had come to him for help and he had brushed her off like she didn't matter. A, by now familiar, feeling of guilt settled on his heart, threatening to crush it.

Gibbs stared at her for a minute before grabbing his bag and heading towards the door, muttering "We're done" almost as an afterthought before the door closed behind him.

***Saturday June 2nd 10:30 P.M***

Abby nervously walked into the restaurant in which she had agreed to meet Mikel. Her hands were shaking as she nervously took a seat at a table and waited for her 'guest' to arrive. After waiting for half an hour, she began to relax, thinking that Mikel had backed out.

"I'm so glad you decided to meet me here, Abby." An unfortunately familiar voice said from behind her.

Abby turned around and looked into the eyes of the man with whom she had once been very intimate. Now, all she could see was a potential killer. "Let's just get this over with, Mikel." She said as the man in question took a seat across from her. "I want you out of my life. I will give you anything you anything you want to just walk out right now and never contact me again." She figured that the time for walking on eggshells had passed and it was time to be a blunt as possible to possibly get through to the stubborn man before her.

"Now Abby, you know that I can't do that. I'm only trying to do what's best for you. Pleases don't make me hurt you." He said with a deranged look on his face. Abby opened her mouth to respond, but as she turned her head to look in his eyes, another figure caught her attention out of the corner of her eye.

Tony was sitting at a table in the back of the room, a huge smile on his face as he laughed with what appeared to be a very attractive girl. _Damn it! The whole point of meeting him here was to keep Tony away from everything. _

With the fear of being discovered in the back of her head, Abby skillfully convinced Mikel to leave the restaurant and go outside. She wanted to get as far away from Tony as possible.

"I'm really happy you finally started to see this my way Abby. I just want what's best for you." He 'date' said in an almost desperate tone

Abby stopped walking and turned to face him. "Mikel, you don't know what's best for me. You act like you own me, but you of all people should know that I belong to no one."She said in a firm tone. "The quicker you realize that the faster you can move on and _leave me alone_." Abby's eyes widened when she realized that she had said the last part out loud. She had been trying to avoid making him angry in an effort to appeal to his more reasonable side.

Mikel's eyes flashed with anger as he pushed her into the dark alley they had just passed. He continued to shove her until Abby's back hit the brick wall at the alley. She saw him take out something from his pocket and her eyes widened when she saw it glint in the limited light, realizing that it was a sharp, rusted knife.

"Mikel-"

"Don't you get,Abby? You do belong to me. I'm the only one that's really out to protect you. I only ever wanted to do what's best for you, but you just couldn't make it easy on me, could you? You couldn't just listen to reason and come back to me. Well, I'm going to make sure that you never make that kind of mistake again!" He said, his eyes shifting crazily as he raised the dagger.

"Mikel!Don't"-

***Sunday June 3rd 9:05 A.M.***

Special Agent Leroy Jethro "second 'B' is for bastard" Gibbs stormed into Bethesda Hospital in all of his Gibbs-y glory. "Where the hell is Abigail Sciuto?!" He demanded from the petrified nurse behind the front desk. He barely gave her time to complete her answer before he stormed down the hallway to the designated room.

Tony DiNozzo awoke with a start and carefully massaged the knot in his neck as he made his way to the door o see what all the commotion was about. With one last backward look to make sure that Abby was still asleep, he pulled the door open just in time to come face to face with Gibbs. He carefully stepped out and closed the door behind him, making sure to leave it partway open so that he could hear if Abby needed him.

"Glad to see you could finally make it, Boss, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Abby is still sleeping and the last thing she needs right now is to get less sleep. I'll call you when she's up to visitors." With that dismissive comment, he turned to reenter the hospital when Gibbs smacked the back of his head.

"Let me in, DiNozzo." Gibbs said, fighting to keep a growl out of his voice. When Tony turned back to him, even 'tough-as-nails' Gibbs had to keep himself from taking a step back.

"_**YOU LEFT HER!**_" Tony all but screamed at him. He closed his eyes and released a long sigh before speaking again, this time in a somewhat calmer tone. "Look, I get it Gibbs, I do. Believe me; I've seen my father forget me in favor of a new plaything many times, so I understand. I don't blame you, not really anyway, but right now _**you're **_the guy who broke my little's sister's heart and _**you're**_ the reason she's laying in that hospital bed, so I will call you when she is up for vis-"

Abby had almost as soon as Tony and Gibbs started speaking. She heard all of Tony's rant and knew that she had to stop him before he ruined his relationship with Gibbs. She called out his name, hoping that her voice would pull him away from Gibbs.

At the sound of the weak voice coming from the hospital room, Tony stopped speaking and ran to her as quickly as possible. "What do you need, Abs." He asked gently while taking her hand. He momentarily ignored Gibbs standing in the doorway of the room.

Abby smiled softly and raised her hand to grab the one that had drifted to her cheek. "Stand down." At his confused look, Abby explained further. "I _know_ you want to protect him, and I _know_ that you're almost as mad at him_ for _me as I am, but he came back as soon as he heard. Give him a chance. Don't abandon him because of me, Tony."

"He hurt you!"

"_Mikel_ hurt me. Gibbs is trying to make up for it." Abby smirked and gently pushed DiNozzo in the shoulder. "Besides, if you don't let him back in, you won't be able to hold this over his head…" Tony rolled his eyes and smiled before pulling back from the Goth.

"Fine" he said with a sigh, almost whining, but you could see the smile curving on his lips. He turned to his mentor and nodded his head, silently telling him to enter. Gibbs gave him a look that clearly said 'Leave' but Tony stubbornly sat in a chair in the corner of the room.

Gibbs slowly walked up to the cot and gingerly sat in the chair that was pulled up to the side. "Abbs-"

"Don't Gibbs. I may have called off my guard dog, but that doesn't mean that I forgive you. YOU LEFT ME. You promised that you would always be there if and when I needed you and the one time I ask you for help, you abandon me! I mean I get that you didn't think it was anything in the beginning, but after I called you-"

Gibb's head, which had previously been hanging in shame, snapped up at that. "What do you mean? You called me?"

It was now Abby's turn to look confused. "I called yesterday, after Mikel called me and told me that he wasn't going to let me go. Hollis picked up and told me that she would tell you."

Fire once again returned to Gibbs' eyes. "Abby, I swear I didn't know. She never told me. I would have been here immediately if I knew, I promise." He said, gently taking her hand in his. Abby stared at him, trying to gauge his sincerity, but she knew that he had never lied to her before and it was unlikely that he would start now. A true smile spread on her lips and she leaned forward to wrap her arms around her neck in a modified "Abby-hug."

Gibbs responded in kind and he closed his eyes, relishing in the feel of having his 'daughter' in his arms again. "I love you, Abbs. I know I have a lot to make up for, but I promise I will. And you don't have worry about Hollis. We're done, she's gone."

Tony slowly walked up to the pair and gently clapped his hand on the older man's shoulder, nodding in approval. Abby smiled and pulled him down into the hug with them and Gibbs gently wrapped his arm around the taller man's shoulder, completing their dysfunctional-family circle.


End file.
